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History of Japan’s Auto Racing

1937  Tamagawa Speedway.  Japan’s first permanent auto racing circuit.

Automobile racing, or motor racing has been around almost since the beginning.  As soon as the gasoline fueled internal combustion engine was invented in the 1880’s, racing was born and cropped up all over the world.  Racing is a professional and amateur automobile sport that takes place on tracks, closed circuits and open roads.  Much of today’s generation has gotten the racing itch after watching blockbuster movies like the “Fast and the Furious” movies that glorify racing and the subculture that surrounds it.  What these kids don’t realize is that racing has been around forever.  Whether you watch or participate in karting, drag racing, stock-car racing, sports-car racing or even the Grand Prix, it all came from the same humble beginnings. 

The first organized automibile competition took place in 1894 and went from Paris France to Rouen France which was a distance of about 50 miles and the racers topped out at a speed of 10.2 miles per hour.  That’s all it took- people were hooked and the racing fever spread.  First through Europe, then through America and finally it made it’s way to Asia.

Japan has had auto racing since the 1920’s.  Because there were no built courses at the time, temporary sites like horse racing tracks, empty lots, and sleepy streets were used to race.  Eventually, there were built out sites that started to dot the country.  The idea of building a permanent track for racing was the brainchild of a Japanese auto fanatic that had been raised in Seattle but returned to Japan in the 1920’s  his name was Gunji Fujimoto.  He was determined to see his idea executed so he went around petitioning newspapers, railways’s and land developers to establish a federation to run the speedway and maintain it.  He was successful and one of their most historical racing sites was born; the Tamagawas speedway that sits right outside of Tokyo. It was open May of 1936 and ran the countries hottest races until the world-famous Suzuka Circuit opened twenty six years later.  The first race in 1936 had just 24 cars that were driven by regular guys that simply had a love for cars and adrenaline. 

Most don’t know that the world-renowned car company Honda (which was started by Soichiro Honda) got it’s early start on the Tamagawa Speedway. 

The founder of Honda Motor Co. Ltd., crashes during the first four-wheel competition held at Tamagawa Speedway in 1936.

Honda history buffs can attest that it was racing at the speedway that gave Honda the burning desire to make better automobiles.  The speedway was absolutely the starting point of Honda’s long standing presence in F1 racing and motorcycle racing. 

So much has changed in the 82 years since it opened.  The speedway has drifted into obscurity.  It hosted only 6 events before it was closed in 1938 because of the second Sino-Japanes war that took the attention, resources and time of the racers who were headed to war and the area became a potato field to try to feed the hungry masses during the war-era food scarcity cycles. Most people don’t even know the speedway existed, but for those that know- they still consider this speedway to be the roots of the country’s prolific automobile industry and motor racing.   It was memorialized for it’s 80^th birthday and if you go visit the site now, you may find the white memorial plaque that was hung and the concrete seats that still remain as a haunting reminder of racing in days gone by. 

Drifting was most definitely made popular by the “Fast and the Furious” franchise.  It started as an illegal activity done in the darkness of night by those who lived on the fringes of society, but it has become a globally recognized sport that is done by professionals.  This change has occurred in the last 30 years.  Most people don’t understand the origins of the sport and a lot of misconceptions and misinformation is given.  The sport has a lot more to do with the traditional motor sport that became popular during the 1920’s vs. the large spoilers, over-acting, and big neon painted cars like Hollywood portrays. 

The practice of sideways driving has always been around.  It started at the same time that regular racing did.  The origins of drifting seem to be always attributed to Keiichi Tsuchiya who was known as the “Drift King” and set the foundation for drifting as we know it today.  He was a big racer during the 1980’s that was able to master the art of drifting. 

Kunimitsu Takahashi before he switched to cars

Drifing may have been mastered by the “Drift King” in the 80’s but it actually got its start much earlier in Japan.  Kunimitsu Takahashi was a race car driver who started professionally racing motorcycles.  He was the first winner of the motorcycle Grand Prix from Japan in 1961.  He sustained a terribly injury in 1962 and so we switched to cars in 1965 and raced cars for the rest of his career.  His driving style caught the attention of Japanese street racers in the 1970’s and alas, the sport of drifting was born.

Well known NASCAR and stock car racing both got their start from what started as illegal activities and drifting is no different.  Japanese street racers illegally raced the roads in a bid to see who could set the fastest times.  The drift style of racing started because they were racing up very windy mountain roads and needed to figure out how to maintain a fast speed while making sharp turns.  Drifting was born and to this day, drifting remains…though in most places it’s not quite the taboo, illegal activity that it once was.

Auto racing hasn’t been without it’s fair share of controversy.  It’s still a gambling sport and still dangerous and not without significant inherent risk to the drivers and sometimes spectators as cars have been known to lose control and end up in spectators laps.  Flat dirt surfaces have been banned by the governemnt and other authorities because they have been deemed too dangerous.

Another interesting little tid bit is that even today- because of the gambling that accompanies the sport, prior to race day the riders are required to shack up together in a dormitory to avoid the outside world.  Sometimes there are over 500 riders residing in the same place and they are all prohibited from contacting or speaking to the outside world.  This is done to try and prevent race-fixing which historically has been a scandelous blemish on the sport that originated from the early days of racing.  The motorcycle federation actually took over the sport in 1967 to try and clean up it’s reputation and win back the loyal spectators that had dwindled due to the race fixing.  Since that time, the sport has developed into a beast that is pretty exclusive to Japan in regards to the form and execution.  Other countries have jumped on the band-wagon and have come close to replication, but nothing is quite like the original Japanese form of auto racing.

The sport has evolved for sure.  What started as a bunch of normal people who had a love of cars has evolved into professionals that are officially trained in training schools and have to pass a qualifying examinations before being allowed to become competative riders (at least for motorcycles).  It’s clear that the sport isn’t going anywhere any time soon.  It will continue to evolve and change so that generations of people in days coming will be able to fall in love with the sport like so many that came before them. 

BMW M3: Everything you need to know

Bayerische Motoren Werke in German or Bavarian Motor Works in English, commonly known as BMW is a German based luxury automobile company which manufactures premium cars, its engines and motorcycles. The company was founded in 1916 by Karl Rapp and has its headquarters in Munich, Bavaria. By the year 2015 BMW became world’s twelfth largest manufacturer of automobiles with around 2,279,503 vehicles produced. BMW uses different series for the classification of its cars. Or in other words, we can say that the bigger the class number is, more expensive will the car and larger will its size. Also, the series with the odd numbers like 3-series, 5-series and 7-series are used in sedan and SUVs whereas the series with the odd numbers refer to more sporty cars and convertibles.

BMW 3 Series

BMW 3-series has a range of compact executive cars under it and is being manufactured since May 1975. The 3-series is the BMWs best selling model which has also been accounted for around 30% of the BMW brands total sales which is after excluding its sales from motorcycles. The first version of 3-series which was E21 replaced the 2-series and it was initially was available only as a 2 door sedan. The second generation of 3-series was E30 which was manufactured from 1982 to 1994. In its beginning stages, E30 was manufactured solely in the two-door sedan body style. The E30 model was the first 3 series which was made available in the wagon and four-door sedan body styles. Also, it was the first 3 series which offered a diesel engine and an all-wheel-drive car. The first BMW M3 was built on the platform of E30. It was only supposed to be a track car but became the envy of every garage in the world. It’s just a variant of another model, but it’s the most famous line its maker has.

        BMW E30 M3 series

How it all began?

In the early 80s, Mercedes upended the German racing scene when they turned their little 190 compact sedans into a monster. Even with a defined Cosworth engine, the updated 190E 2.3-16 absolutely obliterated speed and endurance records and made Mercedes the go-to badge for the prestigious DTM track car series. This was a home-grown German series, and all the major German manufacturers wanted to win it to make their brand stand out. So when the new Mercedes seized the DTM crown, BMW CEO Eberhard Von Kuenheim decided they needed to put a cooler engine into their 3 series if they ever wanted to win the DTM again but the work required was very difficult in its league. Well, it turned out that BMW happened to have a Motorsports division, called M. for Motorsport. Now, at that time, the M division only worked on track cars/racing-spec cars and that was all Kuenheim wanted: A racetrack version of the 3 series that could throw Mercedes out of the circuit. But there was a problem: Homologation. To qualify for the racing series that BMW wanted to enter, the Homologation rules required that BMW produce at least 5,000 units of the car. The racing leagues didn’t want companies to produce track cars, they wanted modified versions of street-legal cars. Because of this rule, they were going to have to make this new 3 series available to the public. BMW’s sales department didn’t think there’d be enough demand to justify a 5000-unit production but then Mercedes challenge would not stand. So Kuenheim decided to green light production anyway. And so, Motorsport was off to the races. The first order of business was to build an engine, and as it turned out, they grabbed the six-cylinder inline motor from their earlier M1 sports car but found that it was too heavy for the 3 series. So they decided to cut off two cylinders. Now, with a four-cylinder block, they threw the rest of the parts and went from zero to working prototype in just two weeks. Then it was time for the body, but the 3 series had its own body out of which Motorsports threw away all but four panels. Every single other part was re-sculpted to be more streamlined, efficient, and aerodynamic and then Motorsports retuned the suspension, its throttle and its brakes. The end result in 1986 was a BMW 3 series designed exclusively armed with its new 20hp straight-4 engine.

How it got named?

Now all that was remaining was to name the car. So since Motorsports was called M, and the series was 3, so BMW decided to name the car M3. The M3 did its job pretty well: It won a truckload of race trophies, and against BMW’s expectations, it actually sold all of its 5,000 production runs. In fact, it sold another 10,000-15,000 on top of that. Because of the unexpected popularity, the Bavarians made a few variations, like the Evolution and Sport Evolution models, and they even made an M3 pickup truck. Granted, it never went into mass production, but the Motorsports Division kept the concept truck and used it for another twenty-six years.

                  BMW E30 M3 Sports Evolution

Since New is always Better

All told, the original M3 became an icon of its era and remains a halo car to this day. Here’s the thing though, that original E30 M3 was always meant to be a track car/race car. It didn’t have many features, the interior wasn’t great, and it didn’t exactly say ‘Luxury’. So, when the time came to update the M3 to match the 90s 3-series, Munich decided to make the car more like a proper BMW. When the E36 M3 launched in 1992, it had a plush interior, a standard equipment range, and a much more restrained exterior. Then they put back the two cylinders they’d cut out of the original engine so that even though it looked modest on the outside, it was a straight-six rocket on the inside. And that engine was at 282hp in 3L, it had the best hp/L ratio of any naturally aspirated car at the time. The US, for reasons unknown, got saddled with a defined version of the engine. While the original E30 M3 might have a lock on enthusiasts heart, but the E36 is the M3 that set the direction for all future models. The next model, E46 in 2000, was to the M3 that the M3 was to the 3 series. Rocking the last naturally aspirated straight-six in the history of the line, it produced 338hp, over a 100 more than its predecessor. The E46 was the true juggernaut of the M3 range, with over 85,000 units sold worldwide. Road and car magazine called it their favorite sports car of all time. For the E90 model in 2007, BMW made the V8 the standard and only engine option for the M3. Mid-way through this generations run, BMW refreshed it as the E92 which was exactly like the E90, only better and with a sedan variant. For some reason, the convertible got a whole new version number, as the E93. In 2014, BMW updated the M3 to the F80, and with it, split the brand in half. The new M3 was only available as a four-door compact sedan; the two-door coupe was spun off as a brand new badge, the M4. The new M3 returned to the good old straight-six, this time with two turbochargers and with electric steering too. Purists didn’t like the sound of these changes, but none of that put a cramp on the M3’s style. Because when it released, the F80 was considered yet another Munich masterpiece, a 425hp with a top speed of 174mph. After all this time and five different generations, the new M3 is still the king or queen of its class. For thirty years, the BMW M3 has proven that “Sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel, you just need to make the best wheel”. From the E30 M3 on the race track, to the F80 on the road, the M3 has no single reason why it’s the best, IT JUST IS.

Sources :

https://www.bmwgroup.com/en.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_3_Series

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/cars/classic/bmw/m3

and many more….